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October 2001 |
Volume V, Issue X |
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October 2001 |
Volume V, Issue X |
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FEATURE STORY Data Parsing Software: A Worthwhile Investment When Expanding into Statement Processing By Paul LeTourneur, EDP Customers who outsource billing and statements want a fresh new look and they want to take advantage of the latest technologies in laser duplexing and color. The service provider’s opportunity is to create that new look and feel, but the print streams that customers provide are typically designed for a specific printer, and not part of the provider’s capabilities. Customer billing and statement systems create output data in many difficult to manipulate formats. For a Service Bureau or Direct Mail Production shop, this may mean long hard programming days or worse yet, no completed software at all. The level of billing detail is usually high, which translates into files that are only in printer ready formats. All too often intermediate database files are not available, as the first time data is brought together from relational databases is in the billing creation cycle. Service Providers that want to do business in this reoccurring revenue stream high-profile business, have either dug in and developed homegrown software, or turned to data parsing experts to purchase the software solution. Developing your own software maybe an option. It costs less because you are using your own staff, you know the code so maintenance is easy, and you have something nobody else has. The problem is that it is yours. Your staff is doing the development and maintenance instead of billable work. The code is known well by your people, but what if they move on tomorrow? As billing systems mature the files change and what do you have that new more sophisticated software can not duplicate, or even do a better job in using the new technologies? Disaster Recovery is always on everyone’s mind, and customers are seeking providers with software portability. Will your customer feel secure with a homegrown system that can not be duplicated at another location? For that matter, if workload is choking you, can you afford to be locked into one computer platform? Purchased software is an immediate solution. Install it and run it. The software vendor has invested millions of dollars in development, documentation, training programs and market identification. Their code is well documented. It runs on multiple computer platforms, such as Mainframe MVS, OS/390, Microsoft NT, and UNIX (AIX). It experiences timely improvements in both efficiency and the latest in technological offerings from computer platform and printer manufacturers. They must offer you the best-of-the-best, or you will go elsewhere, as may your customers. Consider the level of sophistication available from some of the software vendors. You may have a "computer wiz or nerd" that is unbelievable in your day-to-day office automation programming, but does the Wiz have experience in decoding complex print streams? For example: PCL permits user defined fonts to be embedded anywhere in the print stream. How will this be handled? What about even more complex issues such as embedded macros? If you merge different PCL files each with embedded fonts and macros, what do you believe will occur? Software vendors have the experience of not only their staff, but of all their customers. This depth of knowledge is a resource you can access to shortcut the pitfalls of the users who first installed and developed new or replacement systems. Most vendors have a Professional Services Group who will write your first few programs. They get you up and running fast, and your staff has real-world samples to refer to when they take on new projects. Data parsing software should do more than break down print files for reformatting. It should offer the ability to connect with other software products and reduce job steps. Taking a customer’s PCL print stream and parsing it to run Presort and include Postnet barcode, while at the same time formatting for a spot color high-volume production laser printer, should be a single step. Then there is the Web: is part of your service going to include segmenting recipients who have selected an Internet option for receiving their bills? Do you develop a bridge to handle these EBP or EBPP exceptions? Or do you install an integrated sister application to automate the process, either in parallel or some time in the near future? If procuring a web solution is not practical (you have a system installed), then your parsing software should offer HTML and XML output as an option. You may simply want to make selected pages available for quality control checking on your Intranet. If you upgrade hardware, how will the software perform? You may be handling some of the input streams: AFPline, AFP mixed, DJDE, Metacode, PCL, Postscript, and good old print image line data. But what about production printer changes? The Software you select should offer the ability to migrate to new printers, by default. By definition, multiple in and out will allow you to move applications from one printer to another with little to minimal effort. Good software should help get you out of jams. Good parsing software is actually a conversion tool to move documents from one platform to another. It should input and output as many formats as possible while providing editing opportunities to include new information, and exclude selected or outdated information. How many times have you had the experience where information was left off a pre-printed form, or a step in list update or presorting was inadvertently skipped, resulting in missing information? The Parsing Software should offer you the ability to modify the print stream waiting to be released to print, and do it "on-the-fly" so reprocessing is not required. To program or not to program. This software vendor or that one. You should look for people with long term experience in both software and hardware before deciding on an in-house or purchase solution. This is not the time to be dot.com’d. Before your customer turns over their income stream, you had better believe they will be asking the same questions about experience, longevity, reputation, documentation and flexibility. Paul LeTourneur, EDP is a Certified Electronic Document Professional with over 30 years in the Direct Marketing industry. His background has been in software, printer hardware, facility management, Sales/Marketing and Consulting. Paul is the Sales Director for Northeast and Mid-Atlantic TransFormer Sales with Bell & Howell Mail and Messaging Technologies. Call Paul about Print Stream TransFormations at 410-949-2621 or e-mail Paul.LeTourneur@BellHowell.MMT.com. |
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Ken Leslie, EDP Publisher |
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©2001 |
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